


Intake

by orphan_account



Series: No Bridge to Burn [1]
Category: Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-02
Updated: 2015-06-02
Packaged: 2018-04-02 12:19:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4059745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“Aw,” Slit said, syrup over rusty blades. “That’s bullshit, man. I’m popular with all the pussies. Ain’t that right, cat?”</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Intake

**Author's Note:**

> I have a lot of Nux and Capable feelings and can only express them in AU fic. With cats, apparently.

“I don’t like cats,” Slit said.

Nux glanced to where Slit hunched in front of a black tabby – Nux’s black tabby – who, herself, was crouched on the kitchen bench. Both of them wore the same narrow eyed look. 

Slit scoffed and Nux watched as he stood, the slack drop of his shoulders straightening, body long, lean and loose under what he wore. 

Nux looked back at his hands, inhaled a lungful of dry, cold air, and said, “Guessing the feeling’s mutual.” 

He imagined the sound of his voice as the drag of fork tines across a rock, or the act of digging marrow from a bone: wedging the tip of a knife in and splintering. Nux refrained from clearing his throat, and pictured the concrete grey of marrow while Slit laughed, chainsaw-like.

“Aw,” Slit said, syrup over rusty blades. “That’s bullshit, man. I’m popular with all the pussies. Ain’t that right, cat?”

He must have touched her, because there was a carefully balanced thud and a whip of a tail against Nux’s shins. 

Slit snorted this time, then said, “Let’s go out, man,” and Nux said, “Yeah, okay,” even though he didn’t feel like it. Pain radiated from his shoulders, lower back a wide ache from bending over engines all day. He folded his thumb against a cut on his palm, skin kept together with superglue, and shrugged.

A bowl sat on the table, with a lone red apple paired neatly with the silver of Nux’s car keys. 

Slit made a grab for the set and Nux beat him to it. Slit seized Nux’s forearm, fingers hard around the wrist, and ground the bones together before he loosened his grip. 

“You’re a shit driver,” Slit said.

Nux lifted his chin. “It’s not my license that’s suspended.” 

He had been the one who had driven them back to the apartment, and Slit would leg it to his own if he wasn’t making time with the toilet, later. It had been the arrangement for the last week and a half.

Slit’s smile cut into his cheeks and he closed his free hand over Nux’s fist to pry his fingers open. “I know what I’m doin, if that’s what you’re worried about. I’ve only had a couple.”

Nux twisted his arm away and forced as much marrow in his voice to say, “Fuck off. I’m driving.”

“Yeah?” Slit swayed his bulk forward, used whatever inches he had on Nux before he retreated. “Yeah,” he said again, and Nux relaxed his fist, still tight around his keys. “Fine. Asshole.”

Nux waited a second longer before he shoved his way past. 

The apartment was small and boxy: living area, kitchen and dining the same 20 square meters of space that narrowed to short hallway to the front door. Nux shoved his boots on and then stepped out, moving aside for Slit to follow. 

“Hey, babe,” Slit said. The name caught on the slam of the door.

Nux didn’t wince, but it was a close thing. 

The woman who lived across the hallway was young with red hair. Nux remembered when she had dyed it – bright like a stop light and just as effective. It had faded over the month, and the colour settled dark and deep, a few shades off blood. She stared at Slit before she slid her attention over to Nux, who looked back.

“You wanna come?” Slit said. He grabbed Nux’s elbow, yanked him close. “Nux here reckons he’s a good ride, if you’re keen to find out.” 

In his head, Nux called her Capable, because she was. More than. There was the slightest lift of her eyebrows before she said, “No.” She unlocked the door to her apartment, and then said, “Thanks,” as she closed it after her. 

And that was that.

Nux jerked his arm from Slit’s grasp and stalked down the hallway. 

“Y’know,” Slit said. Nux could hear the swagger in his step, the metallic clink of his belt and pocket chain as he followed. “You could have her if you quit bein a fucking pussy.”

“She’s not my type,” Nux said, voice low and lumpy like the camshaft in his V8. He had installed it last week, paired with an intake, and tuned the engine to gain some 300 odd kilowatts at the rear. 

Nux pressed the teeth of his keys against the pad of his thumb and thought about that instead.


End file.
